I harvested my honey

[vermmy35]

I harvested my honey around September 15th and I have to say that it has to be the best honey I ever tasted. We ended up with around 120 lbs worth of the golden goodness. Next year I plan on splitting the hive to make 2 hive since I had so much fun with it, plus I figure that is how much I'll need since my wife has put a dent in my honey harvest. Unfortunetlly the weather here in Chicago has been cold and rainy all summer long so the tomatoes didn't ripen as much as I would have liked. I ended up with a bunch of green tomatoes at the end of summer, so I wrapped them up in newspaper and put them up for a month or two to ripen.

[gardengirl72]

That is so cool. Did you do anything with the bees wax? Please expand on how you produced soo much and how many hives you have and the extraction process you used.

I just met a bee keeper and made a video with him where we went thru the whole process. He also gave me some honey. It's pure, raw, and delicious.

Bees are really important for vegetable gardening. It is an easy thing to do. I am going to set up my hives this spring!

[Fred's Fine Fowl]

That's fantastic! I've never known anyone around who could collect so much from a single hive in one harvest... oy, you must have had four or five supers on that hive? a w e s o m e (I've learned that mean bees produce more honey)

I agree with you, this was a great honey year as far as quality goes... we have had light golden wild flower honey and it's wonderful... doing the last bit of the harvest this week.. if it ever stops raining. Quantity is down, quality is up...

I can't wait to see your new video Patti and I'm so glad you will be starting your own apiary there... you are going to love keeping honey bees!

I have four hives and will only be extracting honey from two of them, the others will need the resources for the coming winter months... then we can harvest in spring if there is a big surplus.

I send my comb and cappings to a friend in Washington State and she makes a healing balm with it and shares that with us. She gets to keep the extra cap wax (always the best) and uses it as she will.

We leave our honey in the raw state and this ends up crystallizing fairly quickly, as there are tiny suspended particles in it... a simple re-heat takes care of that and re-liquefies the honey... RAW honey can help with local allergies and is just plain good for you. For allergies to be affected/reduced, the honey must come from the same area as the allergy sufferer...

Honey bees are such a win-win... pollinators, honey and wax producers. I can't imagine not having an apiary. Our honey demand greatly outdoes our tiny supply... we don't get anywhere near the quantity of the previous poster... maybe 100# from two hives total for the season... but that's a lot of honey bears!

I was also inspected this year by the PA Bee Inspector.... clean slate across the board. And that's fantastic news, as we don't treat with anything and are using the hygienic survivor resistant lines...

It's a wonderful and interesting hobby that benefits your neighbors and growers for miles in every direction from your apiary.

Thank you for sharing and again Patti... can't wait to see the video you've made :}

As always..
Fred

www.FredsFineFowl.com

[vermmy35]

It was just the one hive Patti with 6 suppers on it. The wife keep saying do you think its going to fall over.:D I bought a cheap 2 frame extractor and spent a whole Saterday just spining it out and watching the wife eat the honey and caps. :eek: As far as the wax's goes I have cleaned and dried it and stuck it in the freezer until next year when I will build or buy a solar-wax melter. Would you believe that the wife has already claimed the wax so she can make canndels. This just doesn't sound fair to me; I mean, I take care of the bee's, harvest the honey and feed the bee's and the wife gets all the rewards.:confused::p

Gratz on the apiary Patti, you are going to love it. I can't tell you how many times I went out to the hive just to watch them come and go. I was just so relaxing with the gentle hum of 60 thousand bees. So what kind of bee's will you be keeping Patti? I can't wait to see the video when you release it on youtube.

Hey Fred, Yeah it was a great year for me and a great harvest too. I think because I live in the city and they don't have any compation. That was the main reason why I was able to collected so much. I will be splitting the hive next summer if they have a year like they did this year.